Gathering at my home with friends invited by my wife for the empowerment last night, it felt like Christmas eve. As the autumn night darkened and the curtains were drawn, friends arrived with offerings, the shrine lit up with offerings and the big lounge TV we saw the countdown to the empowerment being “live” as we put in place the last details, mandala kits, malas, Sadhana’s… and settled.

Setting up the the room meant transforming the lounge into Tara’s pure land, and we even had a little miracle: Unrolling what I thought was a Thankgha of Je Tsongkhapa, I instead was presented with a radiant Tara … and I really had no recollection of owning this painting! So up she went on the wall and gazed upon us. We delighted in the blessings of Tara as Gen La Dekyong suffused in golden light with Gesh-la beside her granted the Tara Empowerment. My elderly dog even got in on the action – peacefully sleeping throughout in one corner of the room.

Afterwards, now past 11pm, we had a little Tsog party and finally after midnight, beneath a velvet starry sky, we waved goodbye and as the cars pulled away my wife and I closed the front door, feeling that we would sleep inside a magical space. We felt so very fortunate. Thank you Geshe-la.